


Trouvaille

by Escopeta



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Friendship, M/M, Prompt Fill, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-21 14:48:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7391536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Escopeta/pseuds/Escopeta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <span class="small">Cafés are usually warm and welcome corners for many people. Unless you're Nico di Angelo. With an overbearing manager plus a relentless and flirtatious coworker, it's definitely not one of his favorite places to be at any given moment. Of course, time changes all things, and for once in a long while, the clock strikes in his favor.</span>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trouvaille

Nico is sure that at some point in his life, he’ll get tired of the smell of coffee. Or at least he’ll get tired of blonds, as his manager is the most insufferable prick Nico has ever known.

“You’re late again!” said insufferable prick shouts when Nico walks into the coffee shop in the morning.

“It’s not even seven yet, Octavian,” Nico groans. “Cut me some slack. I was up all night doing an art project.”

“And how’s that my fault?” Octavian tosses him a maroon apron. “Reyna’s out sick today so you’ll be the only one manning the counter until Drew comes in at nine.”

“So what’re you gonna do?” Nico asks lazily, tying the knot of the apron behind his back.

“Managerial stuff.”

“You mean take a nap in the break room? Mornings are our worst possible business hours, especially on Mondays.”

“I trust you’ll be able to handle it for two hours. You have a good work ethic once you get going.”

“Why is it you only butter me up when you’re too lazy to do shit yourself?”

Octavian ignores him and walks away to the break room. Nico sighs heavily as he trudges behind the counter to prepare for the morning rush. It’s not that he hates working at the Roman Brewery coffee shop, technically. He just hates being the first one scheduled for any given day with his manager, especially Mondays.

He muses it was probably Octavian’s revenge for last week, when he was surprised to find wet coffee grounds in the pocket of his apron when he took his scheduled nap in the break room. That was actually Drew’s fault, but seeing as how Nico was the first one there when Octavian’s shrill shriek rang throughout the store, he got punished for it.

Now he has to be the first person in the shop every day until next Monday. That means he needs to sleep earlier, which is difficult considering midterm prep was kicking his ass. Why he decided to take two studio art classes on top of a biology course, he’ll never know.

By 7:30am, the shop is at its usual traffic of employees or college students heading off to start their day. The line has already reached to the end of the counter, some of the later patrons looking a bit disgruntled that their morning coffee run is going so slow.

“Are you the only worker here?” asks his current customer, some business man probably, judging by his neatly ironed suit.

“Unfortunately. Not my lucky day,” replies Nico as he shouts the name of his previous customer. He places their order at the side of the counter for pick up. “So what can I get you, sir?”

“Have any black coffee?”

“Fresh out.”

“Decaf?”

“Same.”

“Cinnamon? Pumpkin spice?”

“Nope. Those are only offered during our autumn and winter months, sir.”

“Guess today isn’t my lucky day either,” the man grumbles. He walks out of the line talking to himself, though all Nico catches is ‘stupid short-ass barista’ and ‘kids don’t know how to do anything these days’.

“For the record, I’m twenty-one,” Nico shouts as the man steps through the door. He stares at the exit way and then says to his next customer, “I apologize for the inconvenience, but I’ll need to head to the back real quick.”

The customer groans. Nico is less concerned with their temporary dissatisfaction and more worried at leaving the register without supervision. At this rate, he’ll lose all his customers during the morning rush hour if he doesn’t get an extra pair of hands to help him out.

Slamming open the breakroom door, he startles Octavian awake. Nico grabs him by the sleeve of his shirt and drags him out to join him behind the counter.

“Hands off, di Angelo!” Octavian shouts, shoving Nico away from him. “You could’ve just tapped me or something or said, ‘Hey Octavian, I need help out here’ instead of manhandling me!”

“Just shut up and open up the other register! God, why are you the manager? Reyna would handle this place a lot better than your useless ass.”

Octavian growls something under his breath but doesn’t respond to Nico’s comments. He simply opens the second register and takes half of the customers from Nico’s line. Some of them are staring between the two, perhaps because of their public argument, but neither of them pay it any mind.

Though he hates sharing the same working days as Octavian, the guy is pretty diligent once he gets to work. It’s probably half the reason why he was given the manager position. The other is his excessive competitive nature when it comes to Reyna, on top of being a manipulative little weasel. He had lied that she let a customer skip out on a few cents from their bill the week the owner, Lupe, was going to pick a manager. Octavian made it sound like Reyna gave them a free muffin. In truth, he’d given the muffin away to one of his friends, but of course the security cameras weren’t working, so nothing could be proven.

Nico himself didn’t witness this, but Drew did, and while she’s a huge gossip, a liar she is not. That, and she has blackmail over Octavian now, so he’s forced to give her time slots she finds favorable to work. If there’s one person Octavian doesn’t have the balls to cross, it’s Drew. Nico has yet to decide if that’s a good thing, or a bad one.

The morning rush begins to die down around nine, which of course, is when Drew finally comes into the shop. Her hair is in a bun with little butterfly pins stuck in it. She always looks her best: makeup perfectly applied, hair styled differently every day, her nails in a complimentary or single hue color scheme, and she always smells too heavily of perfume or body spray. It usually makes Nico gag several times, though he never says anything outright. Blackmail is the last thing he needs from her, though she’s never malicious toward him.

“Morning, my little Italian sugarplum!” she greets in a sing-song tone, stepping behind the counter in her apron. Drew takes a lock of his hair and twirls it around her finger. “I hope you weren’t too lonely without me here to keep you company.”

Oh, that’s right. Nico never gets any malevolent behavior from her because she wants to sleep with him.

“I’m gay, Drew,” comes his automatic response, the greeting response he gives every single damn time the two of them are scheduled to work together.

“Never stopped me. One day I’ll wear you down,” she whispers. Drew winks at him and then opens up the third register. “You and Reyna both.”

“I’m here too, Tanaka,” comes Octavian’s annoyed response.

“Yeah whatever.” Drew flicks a lint off her blouse. “I’m ready to work and make some sales. So tell me, sweet pea,” she glances over to Nico as her register turns on, “how much has Disgust-us bothered you today?”

“I haven’t bothered him one bit,” replies Octavian, apparently deciding he was going to speak for Nico now. “He was late for his shift and was slow at getting the orders done.”

Nico places another finished coffee on the pickup counter. “Well, I probably would’ve gone a lot faster if you weren’t taking a damn nap in the break room during the fucking Monday morning rush hour.”

“What a dick move,” Drew says after she puts her first order into the register. “You better be careful picking on my little angel, string bean. I might just have to take… drastic measures otherwise.”

“Please,” replies Octavian with a sneer as he hands a customer their change. “We all know the only reason why you’re so nice to Nico is because you wanna fuck him, which I don’t understand.”

“That’s because you don’t know attractive when you see it, _honey_ ,” Drew bites back. “Sure he’s small and _far_ from hunk material, but he’s so drearily adorable and has a cute ass. Can’t say the same for you, skin and bones.”

She smirks at Octavian. “Besides, we all know why _you_ pick on Nico, and that’s because he rejected you when you asked him out months ago.” Drew laughs. “I’ll never forget your face the day you found out Will was dating him. Your cousin’s a major hottie.” She looks Octavian up and down. “Hmm, you on the other hand weren’t so lucky with the gene pool.”

Octavian’s eyes grow wide and then they settle into his usual scowl. “Listen here, you two-faced harpy—”

“Must really suck to know your cousin can get all the ass he wants while you can barely get someone to greet you ‘Hi’ back without calling the cops.”

“He rejected you too after he and Nico broke up!”

“Oh is _that_ the story he told you? No no, we fucked a week after the breakup, and then we hooked up every now and then; it wasn’t anything serious. He’s really good in the sack, or maybe it was  _me_ who made  _him_ scream so much.” She looks at Octavian with a mirthful, incredulous smile. “Please, I’d never date Will long term. Your bossy bitch attitude runs in the family, Snot-tavian. I’m the one who wears the pants in the relationship. Guess Will couldn’t handle that, so I’m not surprised he made it sound like I wasn’t the one who dumped his ass.”

At this point, several patrons are listening in on their conversation, though Nico seems to be the only one who cares to be visibly ashamed. His face grows warm as he takes the order of the next customer.

“Do you put up with this every day?” she asks, looking horrified.

“I need to pay for college,” Nico replies as he shuts his eyes in second-hand embarrassment. He hands the lady her order of a mocha latte and a donut. “Thank you for your patronage, and please come again.”

“We’ll… see….” She slowly walks away, looking at Drew and Octavian with mild disappointment. Nico can’t blame her.

 

 

The rest of the morning goes more or less okay, even if some of the customers seem put off by Drew and Octavian’s constant bickering. Nico tries to stay out of it as much as he can, only answering them if they ask him to pick a side. His bluntness is lost on Drew, and Octavian harasses him if he doesn’t say something in his favor, which then prompts Drew to defend Nico with even more vigor—the whole morning is a fucking mess. It’s days like these he misses Reyna. She’s the only sane person of his coworkers.

_I hate my job._

Thankfully the lunch hour isn’t too bad, as the restaurants nearby take a lot of the business. Drew is on her break at a table near the window, typing something into her phone, and Octavian is cleaning up the restroom.

Nico busies himself organizing the tin tea boxes by the color of the wrapping. The door chimes from behind him, signaling he has another customer to attend to. Nico walks to the register without looking up. “Hello, welcome. What can I get you?” he asks tiredly.

“Um, hmm, I’ve never been here before,” comes the somewhat deep voice; a man’s. “What’s good here?”

“I’m sure my tastes are different from yours,” Nico replies calmly, “so I doubt my opinion matters at the end of the day.”

“Yeah, our tastes are probably different. Might be complete opposites, actually. But trying something new wouldn’t hurt. What do you like here from the menu?”

From the corner of Nico’s eye he catches Drew staring at them. She has a poker face on, her phone still nestled in her hands. She types something into it, stares at whatever is on there, looks back to the counter, stares back at her phone, and then looks at the customer again in awe.

Curiously, Nico looks up from the register and immediately understands why Drew is focusing so intently on him.

The guy doesn’t appear to be too much older than Nico. He’s shockingly tall, with short blond hair and blue eyes behind a pair of bronze rimmed glasses. His strong jaw and nose reminds Nico of some celebrity he can’t put a name to, but he’s almost certain this guy can pass for that person’s stunt double, or younger brother at best. He smiles gently at Nico, and that’s when he notices the small scar at the corner of his upper lip. Either he’s an athlete or some kind of model, because his shirt looks just about ready to explode off of his well-chiseled torso.

Nico wonders if the guy is doing it on purpose to attract more attention to himself.

“Um, that’s… oh, hot. Yeah. Okay, makes sense now,” he says stupidly in response.

“Excuse me?” the guy asks, looking genuinely confused with his unfaltering smile.

Drew quickly walks over to behind the counter and says, “My friend’s had a long shift. The little darling has been here since before seven. Can you believe that? Poor boy needs a breather. I’ll take your order instead, honey.”

Nico gives her a side-eyed glance. He isn’t surprised at her behavior, considering what can be the epitome of hotness is standing right in front of them. Before he can say anything though, she continues, “And he’ll make the order for you. Let’s see, Nico likes his coffee dark and bitter, just like him.”

He glares in her direction. “Tanaka—”

“But I doubt you want coffee at lunchtime, huh handsome?”

“Yeah, I kinda just want a quick snack,” the guy replies. “I have to be at work pretty soon, but I’ve never been to this coffee shop before, so I wanted to check it out.”

“Well you’re in luck. We’re a little new, but we have a great selection! Does tea sound good?”

“Of course; I love tea.”

“A happy coincidence! Nico loves tea too,” Drew says as she pushes some buttons on the touch screen of the register. “He likes green tea, jasmine tea, mango tea, like literally every kind of tea there is. Hell I’m sure he’d open up some type of tea shop if he wasn’t a suffering art student. So, I’ll put you down for a passion fruit one.”

“What are you doing?” Nico hisses in a whisper to her ear.

She merely pinches his side, jolting him away from her. “The guy’s sorta picky with his food, but he’ll eat most anything. How about one of our Italian sandwiches? Nico’s Italian, y’know. Born in Venice, Italy.”

“Oh, really?” the guy asks, looking to Nico with the smile still plastered on his face. “Nico. Yeah, that does sound Italian. It’s a nice name.”

“Wait ‘til you hear his last name: di Angelo. Can you believe that?” Drew laughs to herself as she leans against the counter. “Isn’t that pretty? He’s a literal angel too. Don’t let his gloomy looks fool you. He’s the nicest person at this shop; sweet as a peach. Speaking of which, how about a dessert?”

The guy walks over to the glass display. “Oh, I didn’t see these. Man, they all look pretty good!”

Drew elbows Nico in the ribs and not-so-subtly shoves him to the display side of the counter. “Um, yeah,” he answers, taking her aggressive hint. “They are.”

“Which one do you like, Nico?” the guy asks, looking at him through the glass. “Or, should I call you di Angelo? Or… Mr. di Angelo? Uh…”

“Just ‘Nico’ is fine. Can’t stand formalities much.” He adverts his eyes from the stranger to the desserts. “Well, honestly Drew lied to you. I’m picky as hell with food sometimes, especially if it’s Italian. Can’t stand the cheap shit I find at some restaurants. Though contrary to popular belief, I actually like Olive Garden.”

The stranger laughs, and Nico stares too intently at the row of brownies. His face grows warm; he prays his blush isn’t noticeable. Though, judging by Drew’s amused smile, it probably is. Fuck.

Nico clears his throat. “Our brownies are pretty good. We have the regular ones, some with peanuts, and another with raspberry.”

“I love those!” the guy says. He looks at the three rows of brownies. “I’ll try the raspberry one.”

“Okay.” Nico quickly grabs the brownie with a napkin and puts it in a bag.

Drew updates the order, humming to herself. “Will that be all, gorgeous?”

“Yeah, I think that’s good.”

Nico places the bagged brownie on the counter and then goes to the back to fill the order. Drew chats with the stranger meanwhile, though Nico doesn’t care to listen in on their conversation. He simply finishes the tea and warms up the sandwich in a promptly manner. When he’s done, he puts the sandwich in a bigger bag and drops the brownie inside. He hands it to the stranger along with his tea.

“Here you go,” he says quietly.

“Thanks. The sandwich smells good. I can’t wait to eat it.”

“You can sit here if you’d like.” Drew motions to the entire store with her hand. “Not like we have a lot of customer traffic right now.”

Nico understands by now what she’s trying to do, and he has a few choice words to tell her when the handsome customer finally fucking leaves. Which he hopes is in the next several seconds.

“Actually, I need to get to work. I’m sorry.”

The guy has the nerve to look genuinely regretful. Nico wants to slap him.

“Aww, sweetie, it’s okay. Just promise you’ll stop by tomorrow! Or later in the week! Nico works here same time for the next seven days!”

Maybe Drew is more deserving of that slap, like on the arm or something.

“I’ll definitely come by again.”

“I’m glad! I won’t be working here all those days, unfortunately, but Nico’s a talker once he eases out of his quiet little bubble.”

Nico holds back his groan. “Drew—”

Her lips tug up at the corner knowingly. “Say, would your name happen to be Jason Grace?” 

The guy looks at her in surprise—so then his name is probably, in fact, Jason Grace—and then asks, “Um, you’re not gonna tell anyone I was here, are you?”

“And give myself _more_ work to do for the rest of the week? God, no.” Drew shoos her hand at him. “Just curious. I really liked that beach photoshoot you did during the summer issue. Super sexy.”

“Oh, w-well thank you.” Jason looks to Nico and asks, “Would you mind if you kept this between us?”

“I don’t even know who you are,” he replies without thinking. “But I’m guessing some model or actor by the way Drew’s talking. Wouldn’t be too surprising, considering where this coffee shop is located. Is that what you are, a model or actor then?”

Drew actually gasps in surprise as she puts a hand to her chest, seemingly offended. Jason looks just as shocked, though he quickly smiles again. “I’m a model, yeah,” he answers. “I’m just… a little surprised you’ve never seen my face before.”

“I don’t go outside a lot. I’m either slaving over my schoolwork, or slowly being bored to death here in this shop.” Nico shrugs. “Can’t spend stupidly either considering I’m tight on money, so I just buy clothes at discount stores or online. Better to save my cash for textbooks and stuff. I’m sure money’s not an issue with you though, right?”

“No, it’s not,” Jason says, slowly, as he regards Nico with a keener look.

“Sorry,” Nico apologizes, “I didn’t mean to be rude if that’s how I sounded.”

“I wasn’t offended or anything.” Jason smiles again. “Thankful, really, that you weren’t asking me for pictures or something.”

“Honestly I don’t care all that much about celebrity gossip. I have my own life and better things to worry about than some famous person’s scandalous existence.”

“Okay well,” Drew quickly cuts in, “thanks for stopping by, Jason Grace. It was an absolute _pleasure_ to meet you!”

Nico berates himself for being too blunt and knows Jason would probably say some sort of snide comment about him. But instead, Jason continues to smile at him, wider this time. He doesn’t look the least bit upset. Almost… relieved, actually.

“The pleasure’s all mine,” he replies, slowly again, looking at Nico even though it’s Drew who he should be addressing. “I’ll see you two around sometime, Drew, Nico.” He drops a tip in the tip jar and then walks out of the café.

Drew leans back against the counter and sighs, glancing at the tip jar. She shoves her hand in there and pulls out a twenty. “Holy shit.”

“What was that all about?” Nico asks, crossing his arms as he glares at her. “Exactly what were you trying to do there?”

“What did it look like?” She stuffs the twenty in her back pocket. “I’ll keep this, considering I helped you out.”

“ _How?_ ”

“You need a date, Nico; I owe you a favor for the coffee grounds thing. You haven’t been out since Will dumped you, and that was months ago. There’s no damn way I’m letting that slimeball Octavian get you when you least expect it. That’s gonna be me.”

Nico rolls his eyes. “I don’t need a date. I have a lot of schoolwork on top of working here.” He wipes down the counter. “I don’t have time for relationships. Least of all with a guy like Jason. You don’t even know if he’s into men.”

Drew may want his dick, and the even-more-desperate Octavian too, but Nico understands he isn’t really a catch. Maybe a good fuck, but not much else. Will had told him that once in a heated moment of misguided anger, just before they had broken up. Octavian had said something similar a while back, not that he ever slept with Nico. The very thought makes him feel nauseated.

He doesn’t need them to remind him of his flaws. He practices self-loathing weekly.

It sticks regardless, and makes the whole feeling worse.

“Yeah, I don’t know that. But would _you_ at least like to know who Jason Grace is?” asks Drew after a moment of silence. “You’ve seriously never seen him before? I’ve talked about him like a thousand times.”

“I usually drown out things you say if they’re not about me or the job.”

“Ugh.” Drew scrolls through her phone and shoves the screen in Nico’s face. “This is him. He’s a young model who goes to college part-time, on and off semesters.”

Nico watches as she scrolls through the photo gallery with her thumb. There are several pictures of this Jason Grace in various clothing lines. Unsurprisingly, he looks gorgeous in every single one.

“His dad owns Olympia Airlines and Pantheon Corp., but Jason wanted to make a living his own way and not rely on Daddy’s millions,” Drew informs. “He’s got an older sister too, and has been living with her once he graduated high school. According to the articles, it was sheer luck he got a modeling job. An agent saw him back when he was like, twelve. He used to do kid’s clothing lines until he got older.”

“Doesn’t sound like a big deal to me. There’s probably a dozen celebrities that have stories like that.”

Drew shakes her head and pockets her phone. “He’s using the modeling job to pay for his college, and he lives with his sister so he can help her out with rent. He’s saving up to buy his own place. Wants to be a writer someday, he said.”

“And how do you know all of this?”

“Interviews, duh. Honestly Nico, what do you do in your free time? Sometimes I wonder if you’ve been living under a fucking rock.”

“It’s like I told Jason: I’m either working on some new art project for school or I’m here at the shop. I play video games sometimes, watch Netflix, or I work on art commissions I get from people online. I like books too. That’s literally it. Sorry if that’s not exciting enough for you. Still want my dick?”

Drew throws her head back and gives a single laugh. “You underestimate me if you think your boring hobbies are enough to put me off. Of course I still want you, pumpkin.” She traces his jaw with her finger. “You’re so adorable, I might just eat you up.”

“Please don’t.”

Octavian decides to exit the restroom at that very moment. “Slacking off again, di Angelo?”

“There literally aren’t any fucking people in the store except us!” Nico shouts.

“You missed our last customer,” Drew says, walking over to him. “He was a real looker. Like, hotness, adorable, and sexy incarnated all into one body. I swear it was like the gods carved him out of marble. Ugh, what I would pay to touch his muscles. In other words, he’s the complete opposite of your skinny ass.”

Shaking his head, Octavian stabs the bucket with his mop, wheeling it back to the utility closet. “Remember to clean up your drool from the counter, Tanaka.”

“Already done that, and Nico’s too.”

Octavian whips his head back and glares at them. Drew grins mischievously, while Nico tugs at his hair.

“Don’t bring me into this! I want nothing to do with anything you two fight about!”

“But didn’t you see? Jason was interested in you.”

“Ha ha, very funny.”

Drew’s grin vanishes. “I’m being serious, Nico.”

“Why didn’t you take him for yourself?”

“As much as I’d _love_ to hit that, I actually—surprise, surprise—care about other people. I hate seeing you mope when you think nobody’s watching. Not a good look for you, sweetie.”

“I don’t mope.”

“Because we’re watching.”

“Stop babying him, Tanaka. And shouldn’t you have dropped your emo phase by now, di Angelo?” Octavian remarks from the closet. “You’re an adult. Grow up.”

“Shouldn’t you mind your own fucking business, Augustus?” Nico snaps back. If he had his way, he’d get the damn guy fired, but Nico knows better than to cross unnecessary paths with Octavian if he doesn’t have to.

“Ignore him. He’s disgusting,” Drew comments nonchalantly. “So, I know where Jason’s modeling agency is. We can go there if you’d like after work.”

“The only thing I’m doing after work is getting Thai takeout to bring home. I have midterms to finish.”

Drew clicks her tongue. “You really need to relax once in a while. Or at least have a guy in your life.”

“It’s not gonna happen, okay? That’s something I don’t care about anymore, and I don’t want to keep talking about it,” Nico replies quietly as he organized the tea selection again. “Please….”

Her stare is on his back, but he doesn’t bother to tell her to look elsewhere. Eventually Drew goes back to her phone until another customer comes into the store. She takes their order as Octavian wipes down a table full of crumbs.

The rest of the shift goes normally, with the customer traffic getting a little higher during the late afternoon. Nico bids Drew goodbye once he clocks out (getting a kiss blown his way in return), and he completely ignores Octavian’s threats about punctuality as he exits the shop.

After getting his Thai takeout, he drives back to his apartment near the college campus. At one of the red traffic lights, he comes to a stop by a billboard advertising a summer clothing line. Sure enough, Jason Grace is on there with his fabulous pecs and abs, along with a prizewinning smile. How did he miss that before, especially since he takes the same route home almost every day?

What a way to give someone self-esteem issues.

Nico vaguely wonders if anything in that image is masterfully Photoshopped. He doesn’t put it past the marketing team.

Shaking his head, he drives off when the light turns green again. He meant what he said to Drew: he doesn’t have time for romance, especially with someone light-years out of his league. The guy is probably a bore anyway in reality. No, his focus is doing well in academics so he’ll open up scholarship opportunities for himself to go to art school, in addition to honing his drawing skills so he’ll make some kind of stable living in the future.

His heart can roast on the back burner for the rest of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually a prompt fill I did on Tumblr back in May for carterbluteyker: "coffee shop AU. With Nico as the barista and Jason the cute guy that comes to the store every morning before work". I thought that since it had been a while since then, I'd post it here now. I actually like what I've started, but so far an actual plot is nonexistent. I hope I did both Drew and Octavian some justice though!
> 
> I won't post anything new until _Homebound_ is finished, but if you like this idea for a new Jasico fic, feel free to offer up some plot direction, headcanons, prompts that work specifically for what I have started, etc.. Until then, this thing will remain a one-shot. (Title and some other content is also not final. *sweats*)
> 
> Thanks for being lovely readers, as always! :D


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